What It's Like Walking Around Amazon's Massive Offices In Seattle

Amazon has what is probably the biggest urban office space in the world.

Its main offices are just a few blocks from Lake Union, right in the heart of Seattle. It's a less than 30 minute walk from downtown, or tourist spots like Pike Place Market, or nice neighborhoods like Queen Anne.

Amazon's buildings blend right in with their urban environment. Walking past Amazon's buildings, you wouldn't even realize you were in the middle of its corporate headquarters unless someone told you.

We were in Seattle recently and got a partial tour of the space from one of its communications people. It's hard to capture the full environment, which really just feels like a neighborhood in a city, but we tried our best...

Disclosure: Jeff Bezos is an investor in Business Insider through his personal investment company Bezos Expeditions.

Here we are! Amazon's "Day 1 South" building.

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Notice it doesn't say "Amazon" on the door. Just "Day 1 South."

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Across from Day 1 South is Day 1 North. We took this photo in the North building, which explains the name of the place. CEO Jeff Bezos wants everyone at the company to think long term, so he's emphasizing that Amazon is just getting started.

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Between the two buildings, there is a big courtyard.

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On the day we visited, there was a market set up.

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And here we are inside the lobby of Day 1 South.

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Some lovely flower art on the wall.

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And look at these guys! Dogs are a big part of Amazon's culture. There are treats at the desk.

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Inside the lobby, Amazon also has a Kiva robot on display.

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Amazon acquired Kiva in March 2012 for $775 million. It's an automated, robotic system for warehouses. It has a bit of info on Kiva in the lobby.

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This art is in the lobby of Day 1 North.

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Inside the offices, you can see the importance of dogs. On the sign for elevators, there is an illustration of a man, woman, and dog.

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Inside the elevator, we spotted this sign for a golf tournament.

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We couldn't get a ton of great photos inside Amazon's offices of employees working ... so we just tried to snap as many as we could while walking around to give you a sense of what it's like at Amazon.

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Down this hallway, there are chain link fences.

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This is a waiting room outside of conference rooms.

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It can be just as luxurious inside the conference rooms as it is outside the conference rooms. This one is designed to be more like a living room than a conference room.

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Here's one of many little kitchenettes.

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Some art on the wall.

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Amazon's desks are made out of recycled doors. See that hole? That's where a doorknob would normally go.

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Here's peek down the hall at some of Amazon's work space.

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This is down below one of the office spaces.

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It's an Amazon locker. We're pretty sure you can get Amazon packages delivered to your office at Amazon, but some employees like to use these Amazon lockers anyway.

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This is the deck for the Brave Horse Tavern, a restaurant tucked into Amazon's buildings. During nice weather, it's packed with Amazon employees.

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Here's another restaurant. Unlike, say Google, Amazon doesn't give out free food. It just has some good restaurants around its campus for employees to eat at.

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This, however, is an official Amazon cafeteria. It's called "The Garage."

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When we were visiting, there was a bit of bacon on the grill.

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It was early, so employees weren't yet settling in for lunch.

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There was mural along the wall emphasizing local food.

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And in the back of The Garage, some Amazon packages for decorations.

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In a back hallway that connects The Garage to one of Amazon's offices, there's a wall of fame for "Broomball."

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Here's an explanation of Broomball. Basically, you use a taped up broom to push a giant ball around a field.

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Legends!

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Here are some funky lamps in Amazon's HQ.

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Here we are in the Van Vorst building, which has a hangout space for Amazon employees.

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An explanation of the name of the Van Vorst.

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There's a fireplace in the Van Vorst.

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This skeleton was one of the first things sold on Amazon Auctions.

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The outside of one of Amazon's buildings is decorated with the original screen savers used on the e-ink Kindle reader.

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This is what it looks like zoomed in.

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Back into another building ...

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We popped up to an absolutely amazing rooftop deck.

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From this deck you get fantastic views of the Space Needle.

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Here's one more look at it.

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You also can see the lake, where seaplanes land. The planes will zoom right over the building into the water.

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And from up here, you can see some of the other Amazon buildings.

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Back on the ground level, you can see more Amazon buildings.

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Here's another courtyard between buildings.

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Amazon sponsors a streetcar stop that runs through the campus.

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And here's that streetcar.

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Another sign of the pro-dog culture. There's a water fountain up top for humans and a water fountain at the bottom for doggies.

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Back in one of the buildings. This one is named "Rufus" after the first dog that hung out at the company.